[No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief]

My previousattempts to scan this poem were produced under doubly disadvantageous conditions. First, at the time it was the only Hopkins poem I had attempted to scan; in other words, I was a mere beginner. Second, I did not realize the volume I own of Hopkins’ poetry, the 1948 third edition of Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, published by Oxford University Press (which I found in a lovely local used bookstore), contains extensive notes, including Hopkins’ own markings of his poems. Since those attempts, I have rectified both of these issues. Here is the fruit, what I believe, with some confidence, is the proper scansion of this poem:

Line 2: from “móre pangs wìll” to “mòre pángs wìll”
Line 6: from “wórld-sòrrow; [R] òn an” to “wórld-sorrow; on an”
Line 6: from “áge-old ànvil” to “áge-òld ánvìl”
Line 9: from “Ó the mìnd” to “O the mínd”

Line 2: Hopkins does not mark “pangs” as an outride, and I trust him in that. Given that all three syllables take some kind of stress, that means that pangs must take a primary stress.

Line 6: My first instinct to treat “on an” as outrides was correct, and my “correction” to include a rest was a mistake, as indicated by the fact that Hopkins marks all of “sorrow; on an” as outrides. This forces the further change that “age-old anvil” be treated as two dipodic trochees rather than as one dipodic first paeon. In hindsight, this change sounds better anyway.

Line 9: This change was not prompted by considering Hopkins’ own markings. Rather, I’ve simply come to think that “mind” has to take a stronger stress than “O.” This means that “O the” must be treated as an anacrusis, but Hopkins using anacrusis to open a sestet is not uncommon.